How 'Antebellum' Began as a Timely Nightmare

Gerard Bush awoke from a nightmare with a short story idea that he and co-writer/co-director Christopher Renz developed into the screenplay for the social message slavery thriller, ‘Antebellum’ (2020). Stars Janelle Monáe, Kiersey Clemons, Gabourey Sidibe, Tongayi Chirisa, Lily Cowles, Jena Malone, and Jack Huston sound off on the impact and timeliness of Bush and Renz’s creation. Monáe plays a successful author who is stolen from her present-day life and awakens on a pre-Civil War southern plantation where she is enslaved and forced to do the back-breaking labor of picking cotton with fellow enslaved people played by Clemons and Chirisa. With their new film ‘Antebellum’ (2020), Bush and Renz explore themes and ideas that are ripped from the headlines as the modern-day United States grapples with its own dark history of oppression and enslavement.